Lisamarie from Beauty Crazed proves that coloured mascara doesn't need to be scary - check out her Mary Kay Lash Love Mascara swatches and see if they inspire you to switch from basic black!

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Beauty Info Zone loves a great giveaway and this time we have cosmetics from Painted Earth to share internationally. This runs through September 5, 2013 Eastern Time so get on over to see what the fuss is about.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

This isn't a huge haul by any means, but Etude House, the Korean drugstore brand known for its cute packaging and products, was having a sale, and I picked up a few items that I couldn't wait to share with you guys!

Monday, August 26, 2013

My most recent Vanity Trove is a really good one - I got everything I ordered in this Trove, and that includes some really great stuff! If you guys don't know yet, Vanity Trove lets you pick your own samples, and samples are refreshed weekly. Here's a little tip - the website is re-stocked every Monday, so if you check in early on a Monday, you are more likely to find a greater variety of goods :) Now you know! I happened to order on Monday lunchtime, and I was lucky to get a bunch of goodies.

Friday, August 23, 2013

If you're a beauty junkie like me, you'll know that one of the benefits of summer is wearing neon nail polish! I kid you not. I always feel so much more like wearing neon polish when the weather is warmer. And you know what the classic neon to wear on your nails is? That's right, neon pink! It just so happened that I recently bought a bottle of Illamasqua Collide nail polish during the Illamasqua sale, so what better time to bust out this baby and put it on my nails?

Illamsqua Collide Nail Polish: Perfect hot neon pink creme!

As it turns out, Illamasqua Collide was pretty darn neon. Since it's a creme finish, there's no shimmer to detract from its happy brightness. I'm not sure if you can see it in photos, my camera went a little wonky trying to capture the brightness. But in case you don't get the picture from my photos, just feel free to imagine a highlighter kinda pink and you're all set.

Collide is so named because with this on my nails, I'm too busy staring at my nails to notice other people in the street. Just kidding, LOL.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

So remember the last time I put up the MUFE Blue Sepia Palette swatches and said I'd do an eye look with them? Well I have! So here you are! It's been awhile since I've done an EOTD (Eye of the Day) because I've been wearing mostly neutrals for the past few months (boring, I know), so I'm actually quite excited to do one again! Since my last eye look (using emerald, the colour of the year) was sometime in April, I hope I haven't lost my eyeshadow mojo. I guess the photo below allows you to judge for yourself:

My turquoise and brown eye look with the MUFE Blue Sepia Palette

This look was super easy to do, as you can imagine, because I'm not THAT great at artistic makeup - I'm happy enough if I cover my eyebags and acne scars! I used the shades Light Pink, Petrol Blue, and Brown. And just a teensy bit of Espresso. Just a tiny bit. The photo below marks which shadows I used with an "X".

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Bellabox's August box has arrived, together with the National Day holidays. Of course, the box itself is themed for the occasion as well, and the tiny box itself is packed with beauty goodies!

August's Bellabox: makeup, skincare, handc cream, and tea. Yes, tea.

The first thing I noticed about the box was the very pretty Peranakan-inspired packaging. It is such a nice touch. Although, we're not just looking at the exterior of the box - we really also want the interior to have goodies, don't we? :)

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Natural products are all the rage nowadays, and one of the brands I was introduced to sometime back was Gamila Secret. Gamila Secret was apparently really founded by an old Israeli lady named Gamila (her face adorns the packaging of the products), and her products are derived from natural oils that grow within the Galilee region that Gamila hails from.

I'm glad to say that while natural brands are a dime a dozen, I have extra respect for the brand because, unlike some other natural brands, they don't indulge in junk-scary-science-to-make-a-quick-buck marketing, although the emphasis in their marketing material is firmly on the botanical origin of their products. I don't know about you, but when brands DON'T engage in dodgy marketing, it just makes me have that much more respect for their brand and products. (Are you hearing this, guilty companies that are not Gamila Secret?)

Anyway. I was saying I tried Gamila Secret? Well, yes, I tried the Face Oil. The ingredients are basically a blend of various types of plant oils - grape seed oil, sweet almond oil, jojoba seed oil, lavender oil, nigella sativa oil, olive fruit oil, avocado oil, bay leaf oil, and pistacia vera seed oil. there are also other ingredients (tocopherol acetate, aka Vitamin E, and inula helenium extract). The product is meant to be used as a moisturizer for both day and night, and the company claims that it can even function as a makeup base. I really liked the really nice paper packaging, featuring Gamila herself! And I also liked that it came in a very nice plastic pump, so you don't get oil all over your clothes or vanity while trying to apply this in the mornings. (Hey, I'm a klutz!)

Yes, that old lady is Gamila herself! And she looks incredibly young for someone her age, too!

Now, I know you've seen reviews of this before. But you have seen a review of a natural face oil that is based on science? Ah, bet you haven't! So let's get that sorted out right now, shall we? You know you want to!

Sunday, August 11, 2013

MUFE's latest Blue Sepia Eyeshadow Palette has definitely been one of my favourite things, makeup-wise, to emerge from this Fall season of launches. For me, it was just love at first sight - and once I got to try out the eyeshadows, it was also love at first swipe.

MUFE Blue Sepia Palette: Swatches and Review

So why was it love at first sight? Well, for one, I loved the combination of colours. You know how I like the concept of "a pop of colour" in my makeup (in fact, I have a Pinterest board called "A Pop of Colour" for this purpose). I've blogged about a combination of bright and neutral on the eyes, as well as brights and neutrals on the nails, so yes, I loved this palette for that reason. It's a very well-coordinated palette. Some palettes seem to be random bright shades thrown together, and some palettes just seem so boring, but this not just a combination of random colours, but the palette seems to really offer a way to inject a little bit of colour into your look without making it unwearable.

MUFE Blue Sepia Palette - a pop of colour among a setting of lovely neutrals.

Below, you can see a close up of the palette, as well as some swatches. There are 8 shades in this palette, and out of the 8 actually 7 of them are neutral shades of brown and a black, pretty much. So if you took a look at the blue shade and then wrote off the entire palette, well, don't! This palette is definitely more wearable than it looks at first glance.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Just a quick post to let you guys know that you can get 5 personalized skincare samples when you visit any Kiehl's stand for their "Try Before You Buy" drive! I like it when I can get samples before I buy (without the hard-selling pressure) - it's really a testament to the customer service and the company's confidence in its own products.

Yes, you can get 5 free samples!

You can visit this link to register for your skincare consultation and 5 samples suited to your skintype! (I guess I'm not a bigtime blogger so under "Other Blogger" you can put me down if you are so inclined to do so - thanks in advance if you do!)

(Info sent by company. Opinions are my own. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Vanity Trove now allows you to choose your own samples. The idea is that you fill out your beauty profile, they offer you a range of samples to suit your profile, and you pick the ones you want. If you get lucky with your timing there will be some fill-sized products, too. I've found this eliminates a lot of the damn-I-got-another-shampoo-but-I'm-not-into-haircare syndrome that most beauty boxes end up producing, but of course, the system is not perfect. Still, it's probably the best system available right now.

Vanity Trove now allows you to select your own samples! These are my August samples.

Case in point is this month's Vanity Trove. I selected four (yes, four, woohoo!)! full-sized products that were the bulk of my Trove: the Simple Cleansing Facial Wipes, a Maybelline Baby Lips Lip Balm, a D'Glamouric M'ASQUE, and a Bifesta Make-Up Remover. The rest were sample-sized products.

August's Vanity Trove: I actually have full-sized samples! Yay!

I think less than three days later, I got my Trove. Man, they really do deliver fast! And then I realized there was a shampoo sample peeking out at me. I paused. Did I get the wrong Trove? I'm pretty sure I didn't pick a shampoo sample.

Monday, August 5, 2013

I love it when companies engage in charitable activities. Sure, it's easy to take a cynical view of such endeavors too, but as far as I'm concerned, any and every bit helps. So I'm pretty stoked that Kiehl's has teamed up with Elle Magazine to do some good ol' fundraising for the Autism Association (Singapore).

Autism affects 1 in 100 children globally, and with such high statistics, it's quite possible that you, too, may know someone with autism. This year, when you buy a Kiehl's Rare Earth Deep Pore Cleansing Masque, 100% of the nett proceeds will be donated to raise awareness for the Autism Association (Singapore)!

Friday, August 2, 2013

A couple of months back, Bio-essence launched its Royal Jelly + ATP Shape V Face series of skincare products. As the name implies, the products claim to reshape your face, giving you ugly square-jawed girls (Wait, that includes me too! what? You mean I can't be beautiful without a V-shaped face? Oh nos!! *dramatic faint*) a beautiful, slender V-shaped face. Not surprisingly, the slogan for this range is "Royal Jelly creates feminine charm". I was sent three of the products from the line to blog about:

Bioessence's Shape V Face Skincare: So much promise, but does it stack up?

So how do these products stack up? And do they really live up to the claim of giving you a more V-Shaped face? I know other local bloggers are giving it raves, left, right, and center, but you know me - I like to look at everything with an analytic mind, and I always like to dig a little deeper. So, we'll look not just at the product, but also the ingredients lists, as well as what the scientific literature out there says about the product. And we'll do this for each product, one by one! And we will see whether the products really live up to the "Royal Jelly creates feminine charm" tagline, as espoused in all their ads:

So much hype, but what does the science say about "Royal jelly creates feminine charm"? (Image from Bio-essence FB)

So, without further ado, let's buckle up your seatbelts, and get this show on the road!